Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1887-02-28

waiting hands which shall remove
them to warm fresides and mix for
them hot drinks and turn them into
comfortable beds.
Then the boat is pushed out again
and disappears in the night to return
bye-and-bye with another half dead
freight.
And so they continue many hours,
for the ship holds many souls, until
oh. JOY! the last boat is nearing
land.
Meanwhile the storm is growing
wilder, and the snow blows more
blindingly. Waves dash higher.
Will the life-boat live now, or will
it be engulfed in yon rolling wave Z
All 1t is on her IL breaks She is
lost No She rights She is dashed
on shore
Men rush into the waters with
rope tied from waist 20 waist and
catch them from the return wave.
They are saved Hurrah hurrah
hurrah But--whaty Man missing
The minister? Oar snapped Worked
like a tiger
A girl is rushing along the shore
in the weird freight, reaching out
arms towards some object in the wa
ters 1t is going out II is tossed
back on the next high wave. God
only knows how she saved it-with
what superhuman energy she dashed
at the waves and saved it from their
grasp. God only knows how loves
instinct led her with loves sharp eyes
to see to that one point at the one in
slant when it was possible TO save
She drags him up from the seeth-
ing waters beyond their reach on the
shore. She slips of the heavy over
coat she is wearing and wraps il
about him. She places her hand on
his heart, her face to his face.
They find her there, and carry him
to her fathers house, and lay him
fore the blazing wood fire in the room
where yesternight a spinning-wheel
stood, and Mary smiled dreamily ar
she listened to its hum.
The girl in her blue dress clinging
wet about her, kneels by his side.
She has torn the white kerchief from
her throat to wipe the water from his
face. Her golden hair hangs strag-
Cling, and wet and stringy over her
shoulders. She bends over him and
a bit of her hair touches his cheek.
They see her lips move, they cannot
hear her words.
"John - she whispers.
He opens his eyes, and looks mp
"Prlscilla % he breathes.
Her father leads her away; he has
read her secret in the white cheeks,
which forget to blush, though all in
the room may read the beseeching
of her eyes.
He is safe. She lies down in her
chamber with a deep prayer OF thank
fulness. She is too unstrung 10
sleep for many hours, and when at
last she does, it is 10 start mp with a
wild, gasping cry, as she sees a wave
washed body tossed from billow 10
billow.
In the morning all meet nj the
breakfast table, the minister looking
well and hearty as ever, and with
something vibrating in his voice and
glancing in his eyes which has not
been there before, Mary, pale and
rather propd-looking, with dark lines
under her eyes, but very lovely la
her cardinal morning dress, with
plain linen collar and cuffs.
The oaptsan is bluff and guf and
trying by his talk 10 hide his daugh-
ter's silentness. Men have a real,
rare delicacy as well as women.
Three men are there also from the
wreck. Rachel stalks about grimly,
doing the honors Of the table, while
inwardly she is troubled at Mary's
white face, and determines 10 dose
her with catnip tea and send her back
TO bed.
One of the men tells the story Of
the wreck, and Mary is thankful that
thus she is saved from having to talk
to the minister. She can not aud
will not meet his eye. for II she does
she knows Tho tell-tale blood will leap
to her face. Outwardly she In pale
and calm and naughty.
After breakfast she escapes 10 her
room, and meekly takes the catnip
tea rather than struggle with Rachel,
whose grim sternness and frmness
she knows Of old, and she ~ curious
ly willing to slip of 10 bed. Not
that she meant 10 sleep, but the min
ister will be gone When sbe goes down
stairs again,
She wakes up in the middle Of the
afternoon flom a refreshing sleep, b.
find Rachel by the bed with deli
cious omelet aud toast aud ten
Then she dresses and slips down
into the little sittlng-room a similar
room % the kitchen, only carpeted
and with crimson curtains for the fire.
light 10 fall upon. She knows the
men are all gone, for she heau her
father out in the yard piling up wood
in the shed, and the house is per-